Blog
Hanging a Small Show Without a Gallery
Small shows are usually hung in rooms not designed for them — a hall, a cafe, the back of a shop. Easels solve most of what walls cannot.
Centre line at 57 inches
The gallery convention: the centre of each work sits at about 57 inches from the floor, roughly average eye level.
The important part is consistency. Works of different sizes hung on a common centre line read as a considered display; works hung with aligned tops or bottoms look accidental.
On an easel this means adjusting the tray height per piece so each centre lands at the same height — which is exactly what an adjustable stand is for.
Spacing
Allow enough that each piece is read on its own: typically 4 to 8 inches between frames for small work, more for large.
Too close and the eye reads the row as a single object. Too far and the show feels sparse. If the room is large and the work is few, group works into clusters with clear gaps rather than spreading everything evenly along the wall.
Where easels beat walls
- Rooms where nothing may be fixed to the wall — most cafes and hired halls.
- Creating a route through an open room, so visitors move rather than standing at one end.
- Work that needs to be seen from both sides, or turned to the light.
- Pieces that will be sold and taken away during the show — an easel gap is easy to fill, a wall gap is not.
Lighting
The commonest problem in a borrowed room. Overhead fluorescents flatten everything and cast a colour shift.
If you can, angle work slightly away from direct overhead light to avoid glare on glazed pieces, and use the daylight from windows where it exists — but never let direct sunlight fall on work.
Clip-on lamps on stands are a practical fix, if there is power and it can be routed safely.
Labels
Every piece needs one: title, medium, dimensions and price or “not for sale”. A small tabletop easel or a card holder beside each work is cleaner than taping labels to the piece.
Print labels in advance and bring blanks. There is always one piece that arrives without a title.
Floor and safety
Easel legs project, and in a busy room people walk into them. Keep stands out of the main flow, and check that no leg sits where someone stepping back from another piece would tread.
On a hard floor, rubber feet stop stands creeping. On carpet, check the stand does not sink and tilt.
What to bring
- One more stand than you have pieces
- A tape measure and a pencil
- A spirit level, or a level app
- Blank labels and a pen
- Cloths for glass
- Sandbags if any of it is outdoors or near a door
Setting up in order
- Walk the room and decide the route visitors will take.
- Place stands empty first, and check the flow works.
- Set heights to the common centre line.
- Place the work.
- Add labels.
- Walk the route as a visitor and fix what does not read.
That last step is the one most often skipped and the one that catches the piece nobody can see past a pillar.
See our display stands and tabletop easels, or ask at the shop on Main Street.
